Equality Action Center | UC Law San Francisco

We advance racial, gender, and class equality in the workplace and politics. Our initiatives address inequality at a structural level with evidence-based interventions. We link rigorous research with practical steps to produce social or organizational change within two to five years. We specialize in work/life balance, retaining and advancing women at work, gender bias (including how bias differs by gender, race, and class), and worklife conflict among hourly workers. Our interventions have demonstrated impact:

• Our Assignments Toolkit decreased the disparity in career-enhancing technical work from 13 percentage points to zero.
• A 90-minute Bias Interrupters workshop resulted in a 27 percentage point drop in a specific form of bias.
• Our Hiring Toolkit increased offers for people of color by 5-6 percentage points.
• Our Performance Evaluations Toolkit increased evidence-based performance feedback for all groups by 52 percentage points.

Our programs include Bias Interrupters, which provide training, best practices, model policies, and open-source toolkits. These help companies address systemic racism and sexism in business systems like hiring and performance evaluations. The Bias Interrupters web pages have been accessed over half a million times. In one instance, mentions of leadership skills for people of color in performance evaluations increased from 10% to 100% after an intervention.

Our Leadership Programs include the Leadership Academy, an executive education program for women law firm partners, and the Partner Accelerator program. The Partner Accelerator helps women law firm associates navigate the partner review process. These programs have trained approximately 600 women. An advisory board from over 20 top law firms helped develop the Partner Accelerator curriculum, which covers building relationships, making the case for partnership, self-promotion, projecting executive presence, and obtaining early feedback.

We also lead the “Bridging the Diploma Divide in American Politics” initiative. This work aims to redirect economic anxieties among non-college voters into demands for greater income, wealth, and social equality.

Our mission is to advance racial, gender, and class equality in the workplace and politics. We address inequality at a structural level with evidence-based interventions and lead programs that cultivate leadership.

Our team has 1-10 members. Our work environment offers opportunities to participate in the intellectual life of the nation’s only free-standing public law school, gaining exposure to the legal and business communities.

We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance. We also provide Flexible Spending Accounts for transportation, healthcare, and dependent care expenses. Our benefits package includes an Employee Assistance Program, Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, and Legal Insurance. We participate in the University of California Retirement Plan, a defined benefit plan, and offer access to Deferred Compensation Plans/Pre-tax Retirement Savings Programs. We provide fifteen paid holidays per year, along with generous vacation and sick leave, and a Commuter Benefits Program. Employees have opportunities to participate in the intellectual life of UC Law San Francisco, gain exposure to the legal and business communities, and build a professional network. They also have substantive involvement in event planning, execution, and writing and communications.